Widely Blossoming CME

STEREO (Ahead) spacecraft caught this bright and blossoming coronal mass ejection (CME) as it blasted out into space over about one day (Sept. 10-11, 2012). In these coronagraphs the Sun (represented by the white circle) is blocked out by the dark disk so that the fainter features in the corona can be observed. It's like a man-made eclipse. CME's carry over a billion tons of particles into space at a million miles per hour. This larger event was followed by a smaller CME that heads up and to the left.